Why a lot of banking technologists are actually worse off this year

Much like many other areas of the business, technologists working in investment banking have seen their salaries rise to make up for reduced bonuses. Unfortunately, though, worse than expected bonus payments have meant total compensation is down for many.

According to various recruitment sources, technologists working in development or business analyst roles at AVP to VP level have every reason to feel disgruntled about their smaller pay packets this year.

"Salaries have risen, but most VPs have seen base pay go from 80k to around 90k," says one IT in finance headhunter. "Realistically, they usually could have expected a bonus of 30k on top of this, but this year it's closer to 12k, meaning many people are out of pocket."

Above VP level, it's more of a mixed bag, suggests Paul Bennie, director of banking technology recruiters Bennie MacLean.

"Around 5-10% of the top performers have seen an increase in both bonuses and base salaries," he says. "The majority of people have seen their compensation remain static, but the proportion of people seeing a reduction has risen this year to around 25-30%."

Not surprisingly, the fallout from this year's bonus round (at least in terms of people looking) has been reasonably high. Unfortunately, most banks are diverting tech dollars to compliance projects this year, and aggressive recruitment sprees appear to be off the cards for now.

But the main driver for switching roles is monetary - with the type of role, project, organisation and career progression taking a back seat - leading recruiters to surmise that most people are simply hoping for a counter-offer.

"The thinly-veiled advice people are getting from their managers is that they would like to pay them more, but their hands are tied. Therefore, the only way to secure a salary increase is to prove to your current organisation that you can earn X more by switching to another bank," says Bennie.